This is mostly about sports, and then mostly about baseball. It will favor the New York Yankees, the New Jersey Devils, Rutgers University football, and the London soccer club Arsenal. You got a problem with that? Make your own blog.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Yankees-Red Sox: The Defining Moments, Part I

In commemoration of the start of another Yankees-Red Sox series tonight, I reprint a series of posts from April 2010.

May 7, 1903, Huntington Avenue Grounds, Boston. For the first time, the New York and Boston franchises of the American League play each other. The result is a 6-2 win for the Boston Americans (a.k.a. the Boston Pilgrims, the Boston Puritans, or, for their owner, Charles Somers, the Boston Somersets) beat the New York Highlanders (a.k.a. the New York Hilltoppers, the New York Americans, or, for manager-pitcher Clark Griffith, the New York Griffins).The New York team's name was awfully long, and tough to fit into a newspaper headline. But George M. Cohan's musical Little Johnny Jones would debut on Broadway in 1904, and its signature song (along with "Give My Regards to Broadway"), "Yankee Doodle Dandy," would become the Theodore Roosevelt era's equivalent of a Number 1 hit. Since the Highlanders were in the American League, it was an easy jump from "Americans" to "Yankees," which could fit in a headline -- and could be further shortened to "Yanks." In 1907, the Boston team would adopt the name formerly used by the city's National League team, Red Stockings, but shorten it to Red Sox. This was also done in Chicago: The NL team we know as the Cubs started out as the White Stockings, and the AL team became the White Sox.May 8, 1903, Huntington Avenue Grounds. The Highlanders win the 2nd game between them, 6-1.June 1, 1903, Hilltop Park, Manhattan. For the first time, they play each other in New York. Boston also wins this one, 8-2, and will sweep a 3-game series. The Highlanders will finish 4th, while the Sox-to-be will win the Pennant, and then win the first-ever World Series by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates.October 10, 1904, Hilltop Park. The first great race between the franchises ends in a doubleheader. The Highlanders of Clark Griffith, Jack Chesbro and Willie Keeler need to sweep to win the American League Pennant against the defending World Champions, led by third baseman-manager Jimmy Collins and pitcher Cy Young.

Chesbro won 41 games for the Highlanders that season, likely to forever remain a record from the 60 feet, 6 inches pitching distance. But he's more remembered for the first game of this twinbill, which he lost, when his wild pitch allowed the winning run to score in the 9th. Red Sox 3, Yankees 2.

The NL Champion New York Giants, already terrified of the prospect of losing New York to the Highlanders, had announced that they would not play the AL Champs. This is the only time the World Series has ever been forfeited, although the Red Sox are not allowed to officially call themselves "1904 World Champions." (Which would give them 8 World Championships, not 7 -- 2 of which, of course, are illegitimate.)

April 20, 1912, Fenway Park, Boston. The Back Bay ballyard officially opens. Mayor John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of 3 U.S. Senators, one of whom went on to become President, throws out the ceremonial first ball. The game goes 11 innings, and the home team wins. Red Sox 7, Yankees 6. The Yanks go on to lose 102 games and finish last, something they've done only twice since. The Red Sox go on to win the World Series.June 24, 1914, Polo Grounds, New York. Roy Hartzell is not remembered as a Yankee hero today, but the 3rd baseman and outfielder batted .296 with 91 RBIs in 1911. On this date, he did something only done twice before in a Yankee uniform: He hit what would now be called a walkoff home run. He hit it off Red Sox starter Hugh Bedient, giving the Yankees a 3-2 victory. Previously, Willie Keeler had done it against the Washington Senators in 1905, and Frank LaPorte against the Philadelphia Athletics in 1906.
I was able to find a list of all Yankee walkoff home runs, but not a corresponding list for the Red Sox. You would think that someone, somewhere, would have, at the very least, compiled a list of Sox walkoff homers just against the Yankees. If there is such a list somewhere, let me know in the Comments section.May 6, 1915, Polo Grounds. The Yankees beat the Red Sox in 13 innings, 4-3. The losing pitcher was a rookie from Baltimore. But that rookie did hit his first major league home run, having previously had 8 at-bats this season and 10 the year before. The Yankee who gave it up was named Jack Warhop. The Boston rookie? George "Babe" Ruth.Wrote Damon Runyon, the great sportswriter whose writings on New York City street life would one day form the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls, "Fanning this Ruth is not as easy as the name and the occupation might indicate. In the third inning, Ruth knocked the slant out of one of Jack Warhop's underhanded subterfuges, and put the baseball in the right field stands for a home run. Ruth was discovered by Jack Dunn in a Baltimore school a year ago where he had not attained his left-handed majority, and was adopted and adapted by Jack for use of the Orioles. He is now quite a demon pitcher and demon hitter when he connects."

December 26, 1919, Times Square, New York. Harry Frazee owned the Red Sox from 1916 to 1923. He liked baseball, but he loved musical theater, and he owned the Longacre Theater in New York. His office was in the same 42nd Street building as the Yankees' offices. (Most teams did not have their offices in their ballparks until decades later.)

Due to circumstances with which he had very little (though not quite nothing) to do, Frazee couldn't make deals with any team except the Yankees and the Chicago White Sox. Due to circumstances he should have been able to control, but didn't, he had to get rid of the biggest power hitter in the game, Babe Ruth. So he sold the Babe to the Yankees, mainly because Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert was willing to pay $125,000 for Ruth's contract; while the other possibility, the White Sox, were run by Charlie Comiskey, a notorious cheapstake. (His parsimony led to a problem with that year's World Series.)

So if you're a Red Sox fan, don't blame Frazee for what happened: He didn't have much choice, unless he wanted the press and the public to think Ruth was running the team. From 1918 to the present... Yankees 27, Red Sox 0. Without cheating, anyway.

June 29, 1921, Polo Grounds. Roger Peckinpaugh -- a decent infielder but not known as much of a hitter -- homers in the bottom of the 10th, to give the Yankees a 5-3 win. The winning pitcher: A former Red Sock named Carl Mays. The losing pitcher for Boston: A future Yankee named Bullet Joe Bush.

April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium, Bronx. First game in the big ballpark, and depending on whose figures you believe, there were anywhere from 58,000 to 74,218 (with enough people kept outside to push it to 100,000 had there been enough seats) on hand. Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York threw out the first ball, and John Philip Sousa conducted the U.S. Marine Band in playing "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Babe Ruth said, "Some ball yard," and, "I'd give a year of my life to hit the first home run here." He only lived to be 53, but he did hit the first homer in the house. Bob Shawkey outdueled Howard Ehmke, and while Shawkey was brought back to throw out the first ball when The Stadium reopened after its 1973-76 renovation, look up the 1929 World Series to find a nice story about Ehmke. Yankees 4, Red Sox 1. The Yanks go on to beat the Giants, to win their first World Series.

April 14, 1933, Yankee Stadium. Red Ruffing, a very good hitter for a pitcher, hits a walkoff home run, a grand slam, and the Yankees win, 6-2.

September 8, 1937, Yankee Stadium. Lou Gehrig hits a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th, and the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 9-6. It is the 3rd and last walkoff home run of Gehrig's career. Babe Ruth had 11, and Joe DiMaggio 4, but neither ever did it against the Sox.

April 20, 1939, Yankee Stadium. Opening Day, and while one legend, Lou Gehrig, is fading, another debuts. Ted Williams strikes out against Red Ruffing in his first two major league at-bats. But in his third, he strokes a double, and "Teddy Ballgame" is underway. From 1938 to 1949, the Red Sox would finish 2nd to the Yankees 6 times, and would finish 3rd an additional 3 times in the 1950s. But only twice did they finish ahead of the Yankees in any season from 1919 to 1965: 1946 and 1948. In spite of Ted's debut, the Yankees win, 2-0, and go on to win the World Series.

April 23, 1941, Yankee Stadium. Rookie Phil Rizzuto -- not exactly a musclebound slugger -- hits his first major league home run, taking Charlie Wagner deep in the bottom of the 11th inning. It was the first of only 38 big-league round-trippers for the Scooter, and none of the 37 to come was a walkoff. I wonder if he yelled, "Holy cow!"

July 2, 1941, Yankee Stadium. Joe DiMaggio beats the Sox, and the 95-degree heat, and hits a home run to extend his hitting streak to a record 45 games. Yankees 8, Red Sox 4. Williams goes on to hit .406, the last man to hit over .400 (or even over .390 in a full season), but DiMaggio's streak reaches 56 games, he leads the Yankees to win the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he, rather than Williams, deservedly wins the AL's Most Valuable Player award.

August 12, 1942, Yankee Stadium. Charlie Keller clobbers a Mike Ryba pitch for a grand slam in the bottom of the 9th, giving the Yankees an 8-4 win.

August 10, 1946, Yankee Stadium. Aaron Robinson is not especially remembered, but someone had to be the Yankee catcher between Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra. He took Clem Dreiswerd deep in the bottom of the 9th to win, 7-5.

April 30, 1949, Yankee Stadium. Tommy Henrich was nicknamed "Ol' Reliable" by Yankee broadcaster Mel Allen, and he lived up to that name by taking Tex Hughson downtown in the bottom of the 9th, to win, 4-3. Five months later, Henrich would do it to Don Newcombe in Game 1 of the World Series, becoming the first MLB player to hit a walkoff homer in postseason play. He lived to the age of 96, but never really got the credit he deserved for his clutch play.

October 1, 1949, Yankee Stadium. Believe it or not, the Yankees blew a 12-game lead, and trailed the Sox by 1 game with 2 to play -- and these 2 were against the Sox at The Stadium. The Yanks hold Joe DiMaggio Day, since his brother Dom plays for the Sox and thus the whole family can attend. Joe says, "I'd like to thank the Good Lord for making me a Yankee." (I guess he didn't have an agent back in 1934.)

The Sox, acting like more recent Red Sox teams, blow a 4-0 lead, Johnny Lindell hits an 8th-inning homer, and the race is tied. Yankees 5, Red Sox 4. In fact, in the 1901 to 1968 era of two single-division leagues, 1949 was the only season in which both leagues' races were unresolved as the final day of the regular season dawned.

October 2, 1949, Yankee Stadium. This is for the Pennant. The Yanks lead 1-0 in the 8th, when Joe McCarthy, managing the Sox after all those Pennants with the Yankees, relieves starter Ellis Kinder. Big mistake, as a Jerry Coleman double clears the loaded bases. But Vic Raschi falters a bit in the 9th, partly due to DiMaggio, sick with pneumonia, dropping an easy fly ball. Normally so good out there, Joe takes himself out of the game.

The tying runs are on, the run that could win the Pennant is at the plate, and Yogi Berra goes out to talk to Raschi. "The Springfield Rifle" angrily says, "Gimme the goddamned ball, and get the hell out of here!" Yogi does as he's told, and Raschi gets the final out. Yankees 5, Red Sox 3. The Yanks beat the Dodgers in the World Series.

September 28, 1951, Yankee Stadium. The Yanks can clinch the Pennant with a win, and need just one more out. Even more, Allie Reynolds needs one more out for his 2nd no-hitter of the year. But who's at bat? Ted Williams. "The Superchief" gets "the Splendid Splinter" to hit an easy popup... which Yogi drops! Fortunately, it's in foul territory, but you don't give Ted Williams a second chance. Incredibly, Ted pops it up again, and this time, Yogi catches it. Yankees 8, Red Sox 0. The Yanks go on to beat the Giants in the World Series.

Early in the 1952 season, Ted Williams was called back into the Marine Corps for the Korean War, as he had been in World War II. He would miss the rest of '52 and all but the last few weeks of '53, and by the time he came back the Red Sox "glory years" of 1946-51 were over, as most of the other good players had retired or been traded away.

The Yanks-Sox rivalry went dormant as a result, leading Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, born in 1953, to later remark that it had become like a conversation between Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre in the film Casablanca, a script written by the grandfather and great uncle of future Sox general manager Theo Epstein:

Ugarte: "You despise me, don't you, Rick?"Rick: "Well, if I gave you any thought, I probably would."

April 23, 1953, Yankee Stadium. For the first time in his career, Mickey Mantle hits a walkoff home run. It's a 2-run job off Ellis Kinder, and the Yankees win, 6-3.

April 14, 1955, Fenway Park. The Red Sox host the Yankees in their home opener, and win, 8-4. This game is notable as the major league debut of Elston Howard, who thus becomes the first black player for the Yankees in a regular season game. In the bottom of the 6th inning, he replaces Irv Noren in left field, and in his first at-bat, drives in Mickey Mantle with a single in the 8th.

At this time, there were still 3 major league teams that had not introduced a black player. The Red Sox would be the last, with Elijah "Pumpsie" Green in 1959.

September 16, 1955, Yankee Stadium. Yogi Berra is remembered as one of the best clutch hitters ever, and he backed that up with 7 walkoff home runs, including this one, also off Ellis Kinder, for a 5-4 Yankee win.

April 28, 1957, Yankee Stadium. Yogi does it again, against Ike Delock in the 10th inning, giving the Yankees a 3-2.

September 5, 1957, Yankee Stadium. Bob Grim becomes the 2nd Yankee pitcher to hit a walkoff home run -- and the 2nd to do it against Boston. He decides Nixon's the one -- Willard Nixon, that is -- and homers off him to give the Yankees a 5-2 win.

September 3, 1958, Yankee Stadium. Yogi torments the Sox again. This time, the walkoff victim is Leo Kelly, and the Yankees win, 8-5.

October 2, 1960, Yankee Stadium. Dale Long is remembered for hitting home runs in 8 straight games in 1956 (with the Pittsburgh Pirates), and being one of baseball's rare lefthanded catchers in 1958 (with the Chicago Cubs), but for the Yankees, he hits a walkoff homer against Arnold Early of the Red Sox.

It had been exactly 11 years since the Yankees had won a Pennant by beating the Sox, and it would be exactly 18 years later that Sox fans would come to hate Bucky Dent.

July 7, 1966, Yankee Stadium. The Mick strikes again, with his 10th career walkoff home run, off Don McMahon, the relief pitcher who gave the Yankees trouble with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 and '58 World Series. The Yankees win, 5-2, and the winning pitcher, as current Yankee pitcher Jim Bouton would say, was "Dooley Womack. The Dooley Womack!"

By this point, the Yankees had collapsed, but no one knew that, in the following season, the Sox were in for the defining season in their history, the one that took them from an afterthought -- and very nearly moved, at least out of Fenway Park, possibly to the suburbs, maybe out of the Boston area altogether -- to being New England's most beloved sports team.

April 14, 1967, Yankee Stadium. It was the Yankees' home opener, and the Sox started a rookie, Billy Rohr. He came within one strike of a no-hitter, partly thanks to an amazing 9th-inning catch of a Tom Tresh line drive by Carl Yastrzemski, the kind of play that makes you think, "If he wasn't going to lose the no-hitter on that play, he's not going to lose it."

But Elston Howard -- ironically, to join the Sox late in the season to help with their Pennant race -- singled to right to break it up. It was one of only 3 games Rohr would win in his career, and the Sox needed it. Red Sox 3, Yankees 1.

June 21, 1967, Yankee Stadium. Thad Tillotson beans Sox 3rd baseman Joe Foy, later to be a part of one of the biggest bonehead trades in history -- not surprisingly, by the Mets. When Tillotson comes up to bat (no DH until 1973... more on that in Part II), Jim Lonborg beans Tillotson. The benches empty, and all hell breaks loose. Red Sox 8, Yankees 1.

The Yanks finished 9th in the 10-team AL, while the Sox, led by Yastrzemski putting up what remains MLB's last Triple Crown season and Lonborg winning 22 games, went on to win the Pennant, although they lost the World Series in 7 games.

Despite the acrimony from this brawl, this was not the beginning of the modern Yanks-Sox rivalry. That was still to come.

About Me

Central New Jersey, where men are men, and the women also root for the Yankees., United States

Born in North Jersey. Raised in Central Jersey. Yankee Fan and Rutgers fan since 1977. Devils fan since they arrived in 1982. Arsenal fan since 2008. Former Nets fan, now an NBA free agent. No NFL team. Single, interested in changing that status. No children, but uncle to two adorable young girls. Liberal Democrat and damn proud of it. Hopefully, in sports as well as politics, I can live up to the words of the late John Spencer on "The West Wing": "We are going to raise the level of debate in this country, and let that be our legacy."